The Front Lines 2: Earth's Last Hope
by CT-325
Summary: Xan struggles to lead his squad to help, and they are pursued by a relentless foe who will stop at nothing to follow orders... no matter what the cost. They come across a strange ship, then everything goes straight to hell. Halo and SW mix. ch 9 up!
1. Escaping

**The Front Lines 2:**

**Earth's Last Hope**

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.

* * *

_30 seconds earlier…_

Blay gunned the ship's engines and sped towards the two Acclamator ship's and the Venator class Assault Ship. He gained speed fast, attempting to manoeuvre as fast, but the ship turned slowly, instead of the fast speed at which he wanted it to turn. He quickly approached the Venator ship, and saw its engines start to glow brightly.

"No!" he shouted into the comm.

"Xan! Cut the hyperdrive power! Don't jump!"

Too Late.

The Venator class ship tore a hole in normal space, opening a wormhole that was in hyperspace, and then jumped in.

Blay's ARC-170 fighter was too close for him to pull away, and it was pulled in at the same speed.

"Shit!"

Single man fighters were never meant to travel at such speeds, and that's why Blay was going to die in less than 20 seconds.

His hand lashed out and cut power to the engines.

_Boom!_

A laser appeared from out of nowhere and struck one Acclamator on the engine, creating a hole in the spare fuel line.

The laser had just followed them into the hyperspace hole!

The speed of the ARC-170 fighter was reduced by the slightest amount, and he had time to look backward and see multiple lasers zooming around in the wormhole, before his ship flew _through_ the hole in the engine pipe, hitting the side with one of the wings, and crashed.

_Now…_

Blay groaned.

Where the hell was he?

He opened his eyes, and saw blurred images: a fire, lights and metal plating. His vision cleared and he sat up straight, although it hurt.

A lot.

He heard an alarm, and finally saw where he was.

He was in the cockpit of an ARC-170.

The alarm caused a small red strobe light to flash, and he quickly looked around.

His ship was no longer intact.

One wing had been _torn_ off completely, and the other was buried into the wall. The cockpit was the only thing that was still in one piece.

Had the wing _missed_ the side of the hole, and not been torn off, then the ship would have smashed head-first into the wall, killing Blay.

But, the wing _did_ hit the side of the hole, tearing it off and sending the ship onto a spin that only lasted 0.90 seconds. But it was still long enough to get the ship's other side to smash into the wall, saving Blay's life. He struggled to move, and pain spread through his chest. He looked down at it and noticed that his armour had been severely dinted, indicating that his ribcage had collapsed. He moved slowly, and managed to get out of the ship, crawling though the broken cockpit window and limping across the floor towards a security door.

_Boom!_

"Argh!"

Blay was thrown across the cylindrical room and into the wall, sending pain all through his body.

He opened his eyes and saw that his ship was gone, and the fire was much bigger. Scorp's lasers had followed them through the hyperspace portal! He slowly got up, feeling multiple bones cracking from the movements, and, slowly, made his way over to the hole, where an airlock door had slid shut to keep the atmosphere pressurised.

He needed to get out, before the lasers struck the last wall that protected the fuel tank.

Then he felt the ship slow down immensely.

They were coming out of hyperspace.

* * *

"Fire in _Namcalm's _engine pod!"

"Give orders to send a couple of engineers down there, and get us out of hyperspace!"

"Roger!"

Xan stood at the bridge, and felt the ship slow down.

"Sir!" the radar officer called out.

"What?"

"There's a ship, sir, but it doesn't match any CIS ships that are in our database."

"On-screen!"

A hologram appeared in the middle of the room, displaying a sleek, silver ship that hovered in the middle of nowhere. Soon, it disappeared.

"Send out a communication broadcast, and tell it that we need repairs: the other ships are right behind us!"

"Yes, sir!"

"What if it isn't friendly?" asked the communications officer, typing in the message.

"Then we're screwed." answered the navigations officer.

During the short time in which Xan had been on the Venator, the bridge crew had quickly accepted the fact that he was different, although he hadn't said anything, and had begun to act like he did.

"Sir: it's gone!"

Xan ran over to the radar console and looked at the screen.

Nothing.

"Where did it go?"

"Don't know, sir."

_Boom!

* * *

_

Blay sat up against the wall, willing the pain to go away.

_Boom!_

The 3 and last of Scorp's laser's hit the wall close to him, but he was ready for it.

He was already on his feet by the time the laser impacted, and felt himself being pulled out. He readied his magnetic clamps, and was soon outside the ship! He threw the two clamps, attached to ropes, and they soundlessly hit the hull of the ship. He managed to hit a button on his wrist, and he was pulled to the clamps. He grabbed onto them, began to slowly work his way across the hull of the ship, when he saw a long, big silver ship appear out of nowhere, and open fire on _his_ ship.

"Oh, shit!"

* * *

"What the hell was that!" Xan shouted.

"It's the other ship! It's back! It fired a plasma laser, and it impacted on the _Namcalm's_ damaged engine!"

Xan looked out the main view port and saw the silver ship was much closer than it had previously been.

"Charge MPL's!" he shouted to the fire control officer.

"Charging all 3 MPL's!" the fire control officer announced.

The navigations officer sent a signal to both Acclamator ships to do so as well.

"MPL's are hot!"

"Charge Beta missiles A through F!" Xan shouted the order.

"Beta missiles charged!"

"Fire!"

3 long, blue lasers streaked towards the silver ship, and it lurched to the side on the impact.

"Acclamator's are opening up!"

4 _more_ lasers shot towards the ship.

"Sir! Enemy ship is firing!"

2 large purple streaks glided toward the Venator ship, and it impacted on the hull.

"Shield percentage!"

"83, sir!"

"Arm an EMP Beta missile, and give me a firing solution!"

Another plasma streak hit them, and the ship rocked in response.

"EMP missile is ready!"

"Fire!"

The EMP Beta missile shot over to the silver cruiser, and impacted, spreading a shockwave filled with electricity.

"EMP is missing us!" the fire control officer said.

"Assemble boarding parties!" Xan shouted.

* * *

Blay made his way across the hull in order to keep away from the fire that blossomed from the engine that no longer existed. His ribcage hurt like hell, and he was eager to stop fooling around in zero-gee gravity, and get inside the ship. He looked at the Venator that Xan was on, and saw 3 LAAT's depart from the hangar.

The hangar…

* * *

Bravo 1 stood in the cockpit of the LAAT, looking over the pilot's shoulder.

"ETA?" he asked.

"30 seconds."

"Captain, this is Bravo 1, activating holorecord… now."

A beep emitted from Bravo 1's helmet speakers, indicating that it was recording, and now the bridge crew were seeing everything that he was seeing.

"_Roger, Bravo 1,_" Xan's voice came over the comm.

He walked into the troop hold, and looked at the 5 clone's that were there, and transmitted talked to them via comm channel, so the two clones in either turret could hear.

"Alright, men! We go in, we neutralise any threat, and grab anything supplies that we can get our hands on!"

"Yes, sir!"

He knew that Alpha and Charlie teams were doing the exact same thing in their separate LAAT's.

"_Captain to Bravo 1: Clear LZ for your own LAAT's, then prepare for landing by Delta and Echo teams,_"

"Roger that."

"Hold on!" the pilot yelled.

They came in fast, swooping through the large hangar door, only able to get through because the EMP shut down their shields, and the ship's electronics.

"_Take them out!_" one of the clone's in a turret yelled.

"_Clear an LZ!_"

All the turrets opened fire from all 3 ships at once, clearing out the creatures in the hangar that hadn't died from the lack of oxygen.

"Go! Go! Go!"

The LAAT's landed, and 18 clones poured out, accompanied by the fire from the LAAT's main cannons, and the side turrets.

Bravo 1 jumped out, his boots hit the metal plates, and he fired his blaster rifle. A small one near him fell as its face melted from the lasers, and blue blood spread on the deck. More of the aliens fell, and the hangar was quickly under Republic control.

"Bravo 1 to _Hellmor_: hangar is under Republic control."

"_Roger that, Bravo 1; proceed to next sector, and strip any hostile corpses of ordnance._"

"Roger."

Bravo 1 waved his team forward, and they came to a door. The technician walked up to the door and began to slice into the computer system, working non-stop. After a few minutes, he stepped away, and the door hissed open, revealing a man-sized alien, wearing blue armour, with four mandibles instead of a mouth. It levelled an object at the technician and opened fire.

"Argh!"

The technician fell to the floor, clutching his chest where a blue laser, similar to that of their blaster rifles, had struck, and his armour slowly boiled away.

"Fire!" yelled Bravo 1, and the other 14 clones from all the fire teams did the same. The alien roared and fell to the floor, accompanied by a pool of purple blood.

"_Secure the weapon,_" said Alpha leader.

"_And get that tech officer some bacta!_"

The tech was taken back to the Bravo LAAT as Alpha leader assumed command, and issued orders.

"_Bravo, continue through this corridor. Alpha, meet me over there by that purple beam. Charlie wait here until Delta and Echo arrive, then continue through the door on the second level, by coming with us over to the beam, which I suspect is a lift._"

"_Yes, sir!_"

Bravo 1 led his 3 other clones through the corridor and down a hall. They came into contact with a creature slightly smaller than the one they had encountered previously. It twitched his head and looked up, then screeched at them. Its movements were fast and twitchy, and it almost looked like a bird, well, the head did.

The team opened fire without hesitation, and it fell, screaming. Two companions came around the corner, these ones small, saw the dead 'bird', stopped, and then they yelped and shouted in fright, running back the way they had come. Bravo 1 shot one of them, and the lasers hit the small thing in the back, sending it toppling over. The second was put down by the rest of the group.

"Move!"

They came to a room that was full of the small ones.

"Fire!"

The team opened fire on all of the small ones, who jumped in fright and surprise. A number of them had gone down when a _huge_ 'thing' entered the room.

"_New contact-_"

"Take it down!"

The new beast's right arm glowed green, and suddenly a green rocket flew towards one of the clone's, who was busy finishing off some of the smaller aliens. The rocket hit the clone and exploded, sending objects flying, and leaving a crater where the clone was.

"Switch targets! Take down the big one!"

The remainder of Bravo team opened fire on the creature, and it lumbered toward them, blocking the lasers with a metal shield that was attached to its left arm.

"Grenade!"

A Thermal Detonator was tossed, and the explosion clouded the creature. When the smoke cleared, the creature was nowhere to be found, and the team cheered. They policed some of the weapons from the smaller creatures, then set to work opening up some of the crates that were in the room.

"_Whoa… Sir: take a look at this._"

Bravo 1 ran over to a clone holding a small purple crystal.

"Are you getting this, captain?"

"_What is it_?"

"Don't know, sir, but we should take it back."

"_Affirmative_."

Bravo 1 placed the crystal in his pouch, and then walked back to his crate to continue salvaging.

* * *

Blay made his way closer to the airlock, when he saw three ships emerge from hyperspace.

One Vennator and two Acclamator's.

Scorp's ships.

"Shit."

Things just got a helluva lot more complicated.

* * *

Xan looked out the view port, and saw the three ships emerge from hyperspace. He turned to the COM officer.

"Get them out of there!"

* * *

Bravo 1 ran back into the hangar, and saw the other LAAT's ready to lift off. He jumped on board his LAAT, when the Alpha leader did the same.

"_Have you got the crystal?_" he asked.

"Yes, sir!" Bravo 1 said, handing the crystal to Alpha leader. The other clone jumped of the LAAT and ran to his own, just as Bravo 1's LAAT began to lift off. The LAAT cleared the hangar, followed by the other LAAT's, and then Alpha team's LAAT took the lead.

"_Assume formation! Prepare for heavy fire!_"

Although they are prototypes on the planets, ARC-170 fighters are on every Vennator class ship and Acclamator class ship. That's why a swarm of ARC's came flying at the LAAT's, firing as they did. Lasers impacted on the shields of all the LAAT's, and soon they broke formation, headed to the _Hellmor_ via any route possible.

"_Hold on!_" the pilot shouted over the team COM frequency, and the LAAT went into a spin, sending two torpedos flying past it. The LAAT jerked to the side, and they were nearing the _Hellmor_.

"_Four locked torpedos!_" they heard the Alpha pilot shout, followed by Alpha leader's voice:

"_Dump any finds out into space for pickup later: we need to get anything we can back to the _Hellmor"

The Alpha LAAT's door's opened, and objects floated out and towards the _Hellmor's_ hangar, including a small, purple crystal.

* * *

Blay saw the 6 LAAT's exchange fire with Scrop's ARC's, and he knew that he needed to get tothe airlock that was just out of his reach.

"Yes!"

He got to the airlock and hit the opening buttons, but nothing happened.

He tried again.

Nothing.

"Shit!"

The airlock was stuck, and there was no way that he would be able to make it over to the other one: Xan would jump into hyperspace the first chance he got, which was soon. That left him no other choice:

He would have to jump over to the _Hellmor_'s hangar.

* * *

**A/N: OMG. Big chapter. I know I should've tried to squish it down, and the rest will be shorter.**


	2. Taking chances

**Taking Chances**

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.

Cpl. James Silverman, an ODST, pulled the bolt back on his Battle rifle and crouched at the door to the hangar.

"_Go!_"

He let the bolt go with a _clack_ as the voice cut through the silence, and the door slid open. Silverman ran through, followed by Pvt. George Axton, Pvt. Nick Quanse and Cpl. Li Cho. They quickly opened fire on the four Grunts assigned to guard the closest Pelican. The Grunt's dropped, and they ran towards the Pelican, followed by a pilot and co-pilot. The two pilots jumped in the Pelican, and began loading up marines that had followed them in to clear out the room. A Warthog was attached to the back, and the Pelican lifted off, flying into the pressurising chamber, and then out into space, accompanied by two Longsword fighters.

"Alpha 133 away," Silverman spoke into the mike.

"_Roger, proceed with the others; we're almost done here._" Replied the platoon Sergeant, Michael Grale.

Silverman waved Axton forward, and pointed to the Pelican Alpha 365. Axton nodded, and brought with him 12 Marine's and the two pilots for the Pelican. Silverman ran off to another Pelican in the hangar, accompanied by the same amount of people. They all went aboard, and went through the pressurising chamber, followed by space.

"Let's load up these weapon canisters!" shouted Axton.

They began loading canisters with various weapons into the Pelican, and they managed to get a tank on the back.

The station shuddered as the MAC gun was fired, followed by gunshots from another part of the hangar.

"Get these Pelican's into the air!" he said into the comm.

Another Pelican lifted off, and Silverman thought about what their mission was:

Get as many Pelican's into the air as possible, and then get to the HEV drop pods, because this station was being overrun. If the Covenant managed to gain control of the whole station, then they would remote detonate the station from the ground, blowing up all those son's of bitches that dared come on board the_ Astor_.

_Boom!_

There was a plume of blue as a plasma grenade blew up one of the door's, flinging the guards across the hangar.

"_Take 'em down!_" Quanse shouted into the comm.

An Elite, obviously Spec. ops, ran into the room, followed by three Grunts. Silverman fired his Assault rifle at the Elite, and the shields turned blue, bullets pinging off it. The Elite roared and drew its secondary weapon: a sword.

Silverman stared at the glowing blade.

"Shit."

The Elite ran the rest of the distance between them and swiped at Silverman's head. Silverman ducked, and he felt the heat of the plasma blade. He dove to the right, landing next to a ready Pelican, with a Warthog attached to the back. Silverman slung his Assault rifle, drawing his pistol, fired at the Elite, and ducked as the Elite swung the blade in an arc. Silverman fired a shot at the Elite, then changed tactics and began shooting the magnet that held the Warthog to the Pelican. The Elite walked right up to him and swung the blade. The blade sliced through the armour like a knife against melting butter.

But that was as far as it got.

The Warthog was separated from the magnet, and it crushed the Elite. The tire that trapped the Elite under it wouldn't move, and the Elite was still alive, but only just. Silverman gasped for air, surprised that a shot had actually made it, then regained himself and shot the Elite in the head several times. He had just had a literal brush with death.

The final Pelican in the bay lifted off, and they ran out of the door.

"_Squad 3: this is Grale, you get them out?_"

"Yes, sir." Said Silverman, following Axton, Quanse and Cho.

"Proceeding to the HEV pods."

"_Roger that_."

Silverman put a burst into a Grunt that jumped out behind them, and they came to the door that the HEV's were in. The door slid open, and they ran in to be met with dozens of guns aimed at their faces.

"Oh, it's you." Said someone.

Silverman had been an ODST since the halfway point at the Human-Covenant war, and had always been recognised by his fellow soldiers, and superiors, by the red and blue square that was on either shoulder, with a yellow lightning bolt that ran through it.

Silverman ran over to his HEV, as did the all the other 16 ODST's in this HEV room. He stood inside the pod, prepared to lock the door, checked the hull, then activated the screen in front of him, making it display the battle that was currently going on, and he saw a cruiser fly past the _Cairo_, and head for Earth, straight to where the Sarge would program their pods to land.

He knew that there were hundreds of things that could go wrong during the drop, but at that moment, he grinned. If he survived the drop, then he would get to enjoy the one thing that every ODST loved:

Dirt beneath his feet.

Xan shouted at the navigations officer to get the ship into hyperspace as soon as the LAAT's came back into the hangar and landed. An MPL streaked towards Scorp's ship, followed by Xan's ship shuddering as it was struck by their MPL's.

"Shield percent at 47!" shouted one of the clones.

"Fire those Beta missiles!" shouted Xan.

"Beta missiles away!" shouted the fire control officer.  
The Beta missiles flew towards Scorp's ship, and they struck, the shields flaring. The ship responded by firing Beta missiles of its own.

"Hard to port!" Xan yelled.

The Beta missiles tracked the ship, but some of them smashed into each other, blowing up on the impact.

"Echo LAAT is in!" shouted the clone on the radar.

One LAAT had entered the hangar, and the others were speeding after it. Blay clung to the magnetic clamps, knowing that he would regret his decision to jump into the _Hellmor's_ hangar. He tried again to get the airlock open, and was again disappointed. He looked back at the hangar of the _Hellmor_, and he jumped.

Bravo 1 stared out of the cockpit window, and saw the hangar fast approaching hangar of the _Hellmor_.

"Get us there at top speed." He said to the pilot. The pilot pushed the throttle's forward, and Bravo 1 saw two LAAT's get inside the hangar. The artefacts that had come from the now deceased Alpha LAAT floated towards the hangar, beating their LAAT. If two LAAT's had just gone into the hangar, then their LAAT was the only one left.

Blay floated in the silent vacuum, heading towards the hangar of the _Hellmor_. He gained ground with each passing second, and saw the last LAAT get closer to the hangar. He got closer too, and soon saw that he was going to miss.  
"No!" he shouted to himself.

"I have _not_ come this far just to die now!"

He knew it wouldn't help, but he outstretched his arms, and shut his eyes. He felt something slap into his right hand, and he opened his eyes. It was a purple crystal, and it seemed to distort the space around it, including his hand. He began to pass the hangar, and was about to cry out, when the last LAAT passed in front of him. He was surprised, and then the LAAT was out of his view, then he felt a tug.

His foot was caught on the back of the LAAT.

He wanted to shout in triumph – he was going to make it – but he quickly thought of something else: the shields.

Xan had shut down the protective shields, but left the air shields up. As soon as the back of the LAAT came through, he would turn on the protective shields and jump into hyperspace at the same time. Blay pulled himself closer to his leg, making his ribs hurt like hell. The LAAT came extremely close to the hangar's shields, and the crystal fell out of Blay's hand! He cried out inside his helmet, desperate to hold onto his strange find. He grabbed onto the crystal, the LAAT passed through the air shields, and Blay pulled his arm back. The protective shields turned on, slicing the crystal cleanly in half. The crystal had been cut in half right next to Blay's hand!

"LAAT is in!" shouted the officer.

"Get us into hyperspace, now!" shouted Xan.

"What about the _Namcalm_?"

"They'll follow us in: just get us out of here!"

Bravo 1 opened the LAAT's doors and jumped out, only to be propelled at a speed so fast, he almost ceased to exist. He smashed into the wall, exploding instantly, sending blood flying out in all different directions.

Blay's foot came free, and he began to fall below the LAAT, which was about to land, when the Venator ship jumped into hyperspace. The LAAT moved so fast, it was less than a blur. The LAAT reappeared against the wall, no more than a pile of rubble. Blay met the same fate, falling and flying towards the wall, bouncing on the floor once, and then feeling a jolt, sending his vision black.

Clones that were inside the hangar at the time described it as a miracle.

It took 0.000000000000000003 of a second for the LAAT to hit the wall: they saw the LAAT come into the hangar, someone begin to jump out of the LAAT, and someone falling from behind the LAAT Then, they saw the LAAT up against the wall, crumbled and twisted, the clone jumping out was a splatter of blood on the wall, and the clone that was falling from the back was suddenly close to the wall, holding onto a pole, screaming in pain. Medics also agree with the speculation of clones from the hangar: if Blay didn't somehow manage to grab onto the pole, he would be dead. But the extent of his injuries, from that incident alone, are so severe, the medics are stunned that he's still alive:

His arm, at the elbow joint, had completely disintegrated, leaving only a small amount of cartilage to save his life. His shoulder has been dislocated, and the whole length of his arm had been broken. Several of his rib bones had punctured one of his lungs, but stayed in there, leaving his oxygen, and his neck had been dislocated.

But, he was going to survive.

"What's happening?" asked Xan, alarmed at the fact that they weren't passing through a normal hyperspace portal.

"Don't know, sir." Replied the navigations officer.

"Sir!" shouted another.

"There's been a crash inside the hangar: only one survivor!"

"Show me!"

A hologram appeared, recorded from one of the hangar's cameras. There was a LAAT, the last one, coming through the air shields, the protective shields shut, a clone began to jump out of the LAAT, and a figure fell from the back of the LAAT. Suddenly, they disappeared, reappearing against the wall, where the LAAT was a wrecked pile of rubble, the clone around the back of the LAAT was hanging onto a pole, and the other clone was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's the other clone?" asked Xan.

There was silence, and then someone spoke up.

"He's the blood on the wall, sir."

Xan shivered and looked back at the display.

"How the hell did this happen?" he whispered.

Blay struggled to stay awake, and he felt something in the palm of his hand.

It was the crystal.

He stared at it, seeing it changing colour, and felt himself being pulled towards it. He looked around, and remembered where he was: the _Hellmor_.

He was in a med bay, lying on a white bed, with another clone lying on the bed next to him. The other clone had taken a blaster shot to the chest, and was in bad shape. Blay tried to move, but couldn't, and that was then he stared at his arm. His arm was simply gone at the elbow, save the cartilage, which was stretched thinly. The other clone sat up, and Blay opened a private comm channel.

"Who is this?" he managed to cough.

"_Hawkins_" came the reply.

Xan looked forward out the main view port, and he yelled out to the bridge crew:

"Bring us out of hyperspace!"

The ship slowed, and he fell forward when they re-entered normal space. He saw a planet with a white moon beside it, and a space battle going on, with more of the silver ship's, exactly like the one that they had encountered earlier. There were stations all around the planet, and he saw one of the silver ships travel down to the surface of the planet, followed by a huge explosion of blue plasma as another silver ship straight behind it exploded.

"What planet am I looking at?" he asked curiously.

"Scanning now…" said the radar officer.

"Got it: the planet is called: Earth."

Cpl. Silverman fended off the last of the Grunt's, taking them down with his Battle rifle, and reloaded. They were just about launch their HEV's, when a group of Elite's and Grunt's had stormed the area. He and the rest of the squad had taken them out, only to be met with more. Now, they had 4 men down, and they were jumping into their HEV's once again. Silverman activated the screen again and saw space, and a few Covenant ships. He felt a jolt as the HEV's separated from the station and flew through space. He looked at his screen, and saw a blue ripple in space, then felt his chest tighten.

_More Covenant ships: we're screwed!_

A long grey ship appeared, with a red line running up the middle of it. The ship was also accompanied by two smaller grey ships, these two without the red stripe.

"Son of a bitch." He said. Then he spoke into the comm.

"Sarge, you'd better see this."

**A/N: Sorry for the wait, but I think this chapter turned out well, and I am open to suggestions, and constructive criticism, or just normal criticism!**


	3. 2 Seperate Wars

**2 Separate Wars**

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or Halo.

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Silverman watched his view screen, watching the 3 ships come closer.

"Sarge, do you copy? This is Silverman."

"_Roger, Silverman. What is it?_"

"Switch to camera 5."

There was silence on the COM, and then Silverman heard Sergeant Grale say:

"_Son of a bitch!_"

He heard Grale talk to Hood via COM, and he started to feel very hot.

His pod was entering the atmosphere.

He started to sweat underneath his armour, and he shut his eyes, waiting for the heat to stop, and the real fall to begin.

Although it was completely irrelevant, Silverman thought the situation called for it. He played a song that was at least 550 years old: a rapping song by the name of Numb/Encore, by a number of deceased people like Linkin Park and Jay-Z. He played it over the platoon's frequency, and the beginning came on. He started to regret it, but then thought better of it when the words 'One last time I need ya'll to roar', and 'One last time, we gonna make some noise' were said. He suddenly realised that it fitted the situation, and he smiled under his helmet as he broadcasted it over every speaker in the radius of 5 km, so every Covenant son-of-a-bitch would know that if they died, they would make some noise, and take down as many of them as possible.

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Xan looked at the floating station near their ship, and he asked:

"Is it hostile?"

"We know that all the silver ones are," replied the radar officer.

"But we're not sure about the other ones."

Xan looked at the statistics for the planet 'Earth', and he saw that it was inhabited by humans.

"Strange that this world hasn't been found by the Republic," he said.

"_Encore, we'll do ya one more!_" the voice boomed over the speakers.

"What the hell is that!" Xan shouted, flinching at the sudden amount of noise.

Music and voices sang over the speakers, and they couldn't shut it out.

"Send out a transmission to the station!" he barked, trying to ignore the music, which he was starting to like.

"Yes, sir!"

After a few anxious seconds of waiting, the COM officer said:

"Transmission away!"

They waited, and Xan told them to keep some Beta missiles ready – no need to waste their MPL's on this station – because they only wanted to daze those inside. If worse came to worse, than they would fire the MPL's. He watched the station, waiting for a reply. When no response came, Xan said:

"Get Alpha through Gamma ready for boarding action. And assemble a new Bravo fire team."

"Yes, sir!"

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Silverman felt his HEV start to slow slightly, and he knew that the ride was almost over. He braced himself for impact, and cut the music.

"_Hey, Silverman,_" said Cpl. Lindy McCabe.

"_Turn that shit back on_."

"_Yeah,_" agreed Cpl. Laurence Donn.

"_You could at least give us the luxury of listening to century year old stuff. Hey, where did you find it anyw-_"

Donn was cut off as his pod hit the ground, and Silverman got worried. Hitting the ground never cut off your COM unit, unless you're dead. _Or_ your helmet malfunctions.

Which is very rare.

Silverman's pod smashed into the ground with such force that his bones shook violently, almost dislocating some of them. The door of his pod blew open, and he jumped out, shouldering his Battle rifle. All around him his fellow ODST's crashed in their pod's as well, making it look as if it was raining large rocks. He surveyed the area, and saw dozens of buildings all around him, most of which stretched above the clouds.

"_Split up into squads of 6,_" ordered the Sarge.

"_I'll be leading the first with Kensor, Grell, Hanns, Hlinkch and Brode. We'll be going into that building there._" One ODST, obviously the Sarge, pointed to the building to his right.

"_It's pronounced 'Hl-in-ch, sir._" Pointed out Mark Hlinkch.

"_Whatever. Silverman will be leading the 2nd squad with McCabe, Mendez, Axton, Ryan and Quanse_. _You'll be going to the building at the end, and once all the buildings are secure, we'll set up a number of Command Posts_."

"Yes, sir!" Silverman said.

"McCabe, Ryan, Axton, Mendez, Quanse: report in."

They all said they're names, one-by-one, letting Silverman know that they weren't dead.

"Casualties?" he asked McCabe.

"In Alpha we've lost Donn, Orn and Tyler. Other fire teams are unknown, but Alpha Captain Chris Haynes is MIA."

Their fire team was Alpha, and they were waiting confirmation from the others. Alpha _company_ consisted of 2 platoons, and they each had 13 fire teams in them. Silverman looked at their designated building, saw a Phantom lift off from behind it and scream off into the distance, and then back at his team.

"All right," he said.

"McCabe and Mendez – you two are with me – we're going up to the top floor and working our way down. Axton, Ryan and Quanse, you guys are going in through the front. Stay in contact – reports every 5 minutes, not a second later, understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

Silverman liked the idea of being able to lead a squad, and he watched Axton run towards the front door of the building with Ryan and Quanse close behind him. Silverman gestured to McCabe and Mendez, and then they ran to the nearest drainpipe. They grabbed their climbing gear – a rope attached to a hook – and latched one end to his belt. Silverman held down the button on the small console on his belt, and he began to travel upwards. He got to the roof, and raised his Battle rifle, on the lookout for any patrols. He waited until Mendez and McCabe had grabbed their gear, and then secured his. They ran towards the fire escape, and they carefully opened the door, making sure that they shut it properly. McCabe covered the rear, while Silverman took point. They came to the first door, and McCabe leant down in front of it with her Battle rifle aimed at the door. Silverman stood behind her, with his Battle rifle aimed at the door, while Mendez knelt at the door and pulled out a peculiar looking device – a lock picker. The lock picker that Mendez held doesn't actually pick locks, it blows open the lock, leaving a gaping hole. It looked like a man-made Plasma pistol, but looks can be deceiving. Each ODST was given one, and they were also given a lock repairer, which repaired broken locks.

_Bang!_

The handle simply disappeared, sucked into the hole at the front of the lock breaker, and spat out the back, and the door creaked open slightly. Mendez peered through the hole, and he whispered over the COM:

"_I got 4 hostiles – 1 Elite, 2 Jackal's and a Grunt – let's take 'em down_."

"Roger that," Silverman whispered back.

Mendez counted down with his fingers, and then swung open the door to reveal the Covenant troops that he had seen. There was a Grunt standing at the opposite wall, looking out the window, 2 Jackal's growling softly to each other by one of the door's to the right, and a red Elite standing in the centre of the small room.

Silverman and McCabe opened fire with their Battle rifle's immediately, taking down the Grunt and a Jackal. The last Jackal turned, raising its shield, and the Elite opened fire with its Plasma rifle. The whine of both the Jackal and the Elite's plasma weapons filled the room with noise, forcing them to duck back into the stairwell as plasma streaked past them.

"_We need a frag!_" McCabe yelled, and Silverman pulled out a fragmentation grenade from his belt. He pulled the pin, and lobbed it into the room. The plasma fire ceased, and Silverman, McCabe and Mendez threw themselves away from the wall, Mendez kicking the door shut. The door hit the wall and slowly bounced back, but Mendez threw his SMG at the base, keeping it shut for a few more seconds.

Then the grenade detonated.

Thousands of tiny metal shards erupted from the grenade as it exploded, embedding themselves in everything in sight. Silverman heard the Elite roar, and the Jackal screech with pain, and hundreds of shards appeared sticking out of the door. About 5 flew through the hole where the handle used to be, throwing themselves into the wall 3cm from Mendez's face. They slowly got up when all sounds had ceased, and approached the door. Silverman opened it, and saw the Jackal inside, still standing. The Jackal's shield generator that rested on its arm had been hit during the last wave of shards, and a few of them were sticking out of its arms and legs. Its Plasma pistol had also been hit, and now lay broken on the floor.

_Bang!_

McCabe sent a burst from her Battle rifle flying towards the Jackal, and all 3 bullets entered its head, sending a small amount of blood flying onto the wall. The Jackal collapsed onto the ground, a puddle of blood forming around various parts of its body. They searched the various rooms in the apartment, and only found dead civilians, so they continued on to the next floor room down. They ran down the stairs, Silverman giving the report to Sergeant Grale. When they arrived at the next door, Mendez leant next to it once again, and the loud _crack!_ echoed down the empty stairwell. He peered through the hole and said:

"_No visible hostiles – proceed with caution._"

Silverman and McCabe nodded, and lowered their weapons slightly. Mendez pushed open the door-

_Boom!_

Silverman and McCabe were thrown down a number of stairs, and they looked back up at the door, or what was left of it. Blood from Mendez was strewn around the doorframe, and the door was missing completely. A large shape appeared in the doorway, and its arm glowed sickly green with charging plasma.

"Son of a bitch," Silverman breathed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The station had opened fire so suddenly that most of the bridge crew shouted in surprise, and many were thrown to the floor. Xan jumped up, and he saw a second projectile speeding towards them.

"Brace for impact!" he yelled.

The projectile connected with the Venator's shields, and the ship lurched backwards. "Shield percent!" he barked.

"67, sir!"

"Fire Beta missiles! Charge one MPL!"

"Beta missiles away!" announced the fire control officer.

The Beta missiles shot through space in a V formation, and they impacted on the station, explosions appearing all along the hull. Armour along the middle of the station melted, and debris floated out.

"MPL charged!"

"Fire!"

The MPL shot out of the Venator, and it flew towards the station. It hit the station, and an explosion rippled across the hull, ripping the station in half. The crew cheered, and then the radar officer shouted in alarm:

"Sir! We have contact's coming out of some sort of hyperspace hole! It's more of those silver ships!"

A purple hole appeared over the other side of the dead station, and 3 silver ships appeared, and purple lights lit up at the front.

"2 more ships altering course!" the radar officer shouted, panicking.

"This is going to hurt," Xan said simply.

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**A/N: Sorry this took a long time as well, but I hope everyone enjoyed it.**


	4. Prosecutors Will Be Shot

**Prosecutors Will Be Shot**

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or Halo.

* * *

Time literally moved in slow-motion for James Silverman.

He raised his arms and angled his body so it was facing McCabe, and he pushed her away with his feet. She tumbled towards the stairs, and a fuel rod beam passed straight underneath Silverman's arms! The beam moved after McCabe, but, as Silverman was hoping, she had fallen down the stairs, and the stairs leading up had blocked the beam that was intended to send her to the abyss. Silverman rolled to avoid a second blast, and he crouched, shooting at the Hunter with all of his might, trying to take it down.

Silverman had only ever faced a Hunter once, and that was when he was escorting a Scorpion tank! He knew that they were tough to take down, and reports indicated that there was a weak spot on its back.

He fired at feebly, but the bullets pinged off of its armour and metal shield. McCabe ran up next to him and joined, firing as well.

"We need a frag!" yelled Silverman, and he covered her while she produced a fragmentation grenade, and vice-versa. The Hunter lumbered into the stairwell, and Silverman pulled McCabe past it, and ran into the room, still holding their grenades. There were 2 Elites and a few explosive canisters in the room, but neither of the two bothered with them, and they couldn't fire, because they were too busy producing more grenades – a Plasma grenade and a HE grenade each. Silverman kicked over a small coffee table, and they jumped behind it, ducking as a long green beam from the Hunter and plasma bursts from the Elites flew over their heads.

"Now!" Silverman yelled, and they pulled the pin on each of the grenades, bar the Plasma grenades, which they ignited, and tossed them over the table.

The HE and Plasma grenades exploded first, taking down one of the Elites and wounding the other. The explosion covered the room, and the roar was astonishingly loud. Less than a second later, while the explosion was still taking affect, the fragmentation grenades went off, killing the Elite. The Hunter had rumbled in before the explosions, but nothing penetrated its armour, and the canisters detonated.

The coffee table was only big enough for one person to lie down behind, so Silverman covered McCabe with his body, and a tiny part of his back stuck up over the top of the table. 3 metal fragments from the frag grenades sliced across Silverman's back, and he yelled in pain as blood was spilt. 4 shards hit him in the back, but only 3 penetrated his armour, embedding themselves in his back, part of them protruding from his black armour.

McCabe was facing up, looking into Silverman's visor, and when he shouted as something struck him in the back, she knew that his face would be only slightly twisted. She wondered why he was risking his life to stop anything from hitting her, but had no time to think when he rolled off of her, and she heard silence.

_Thud. Thud. Thud._

The ominous sounds of the Hunter walking steadily towards them caused Silverman to look up, and into the barrel of the hunter's fuel rod gun. The gun charged and glowed green and Silverman sighed. The Hunter as about to fire, when it stopped and collapsed in a heap, to reveal McCabe standing inside her ODST armour, lowering her Battle rifle.

"_Need some help, sir?_" she asked, helping him up.

Silverman winced as he straightened his back, and rose to her eye-level, then stopped. She had removed her helmet and set it on a dresser, and he saw her face for the first time in a number of months.

Her hair was blonde, and tied back in a short pony-tail, and her face was straight. She was as tall as him, and her eyes were a light shade of blue. She seemed lost in a world of her own, staring at his visor, wondering what he was thinking.

"We'd better set up a command post," she said, breaking away from her trance and placing her Battle rifle next to her helmet. She turned back to him, and saw that he had removed _his_ helmet, and she gasped inwardly, forgetting all about it: the scar.

Silverman had a scar, which travelled from his right eyebrow, and worked its way down, _across_ his eye, and stopped at his cheek. He had gotten the scar when an Elite had swung at him with a combat knife, believe it or not, because it had run out of plasma to supply its Energy sword. So, as primitive as it thought it was, it used the knife, and had taken a piece out of Silverman, and in return, Silverman had blown its brains out.

Literally.

His hair was black, and his features were hard, and he also had blue eyes. She got lost in thought again, and thought back to how they had gone to school together, and about the crush that she had had on him since the 4th grade.

"Let's set up this command post, then." He said.

"Wha-? Oh, yeah." She thought back to her mission, and then remembered that if she was lost in thought, or wasn't paying attention, people would die.

He put his helmet down next to hers, and then began setting up chairs and tables for cover, putting them in various places around the room. McCabe did the same thing, and then they both pulled up a large lounge chair in front of the door and McCabe collapsed in it, letting the soft cushions engulf her, while Silverman went to get his helmet to call for Axton and check his progress.

Silverman checked on Axton, who said that they were almost up to his level. Silverman closed the channel, kept his helmet on, and picked up McCabe's helmet, because he knew that she was too lazy to get it herself. He pulled out her headset radio, and said:

"Here's your headset,"

He approached the couch, and, upon receiving no answer, he went and stood in front of it. McCabe was in the chair, and she was sitting, absolutely still, and her face had gone completely pale, and her eyes had lost their colour.

He immediately froze – McCabe was the strongest person that he knew, and…

_She was staring over his shoulder_.

He turned around, and saw 2 Brute's staring at him!

One of them grinned, and then they both opened fire with their Brute Shot's.

* * *

The first 5 plasma impacts took down the shields, and the last 2 punctured the hull of the Venator. The _entire_ bridge crew had been beaten senseless by the plasma impacts, and the ship had been thrown 500,000km off course.

Xan opened his eyes, willing the tremendous pain in his head and the rest of his body to go away, and saw that he had fallen from the second level to the bottom.

"Status!" he coughed, but nobody heard him, so he shouted out:

"_Status_!"

A number of clones staggered back to their stations, and then a hologram of the ship appeared in the middle of the room, showing 2 red sections.

"This is where we've been hit," one of the officers said, gagging at the lack of oxygen that the suit provided while he was winded.

Xan got up quickly and tasted blood, helping up other clones before returning to his position.

"Charge all MPL's and Beta missiles, then fire at will!"

A chorus of 'Yes, sirs' came from multiple people, and then long blue lines streaked towards the silver ships.

"Divert 25 from all engines to recharging the shields!" he commanded, and a blue shimmer appeared on the outside of the ship, followed by the ship jolting as it was hit by another plasma charge.

"We can't hold this, sir!" the fire control officer shouted after a few minutes and one-enemy-ship-down later.

"We need to break away: the shields can't hold it much longer!"

Xan looked at the display on the Captain's console – the clone was right – the shields were at 21.

"We need to get down to that planet," he announced.

"What about the _Namcalm_?" the navigations officer enquired.

"They can't move it,"

Xan thought, and then he bit his lip.

"Tell the crew on board the _Namcalm_ to get into their escape pods and then jettison down to the planet – we're leaving it behind."

* * *

Silverman reacted as the Brute's finger squeezed the trigger.

He jumped while moving towards them, spinning, and at a 45 degree angle, still holding McCabe's helmet in his hand, which saved their lives.

The first grenade bounced off the visor of the helmet, and bounced off a wall and travelled down the stairs for 3 meters, before hitting a stair and detonating, sending rubble flying everywhere. He let fly with the helmet, and it smashed into the lead Brute's head, and Silverman hit the ground running as fast as he could towards it. He jumped into the air, delivering a roundhouse kick to the Brute's chest, but it seemed un-fazed by the blow, so he followed through with a punch to the Brute's nose. The brute didn't move, and he punched it again and again, then the Brute picked kneed him in the stomach. Silverman staggered back, and then ran at the Brute; crash-tackling it into the wall.

By now, the other Brute had approached McCabe, and she fired at it with her Battle rifle from her new position from behind the couch. A burst tore through its shoulder, then its chest, and then one bullet scraped its neck, but nothing seemed to damage it.

Silverman punched the Brute in the face again, and received the second sign of action from the Brute – it lashed out with its Brute shot, and the blade cut into Silverman's stomach. He roared, and then delivered a kick strong enough to kick the Brute Shot away. That was when the Brute showed its third sign of melee action.

Strike three: You're out.

It picked Silverman up and threw him into the wall, leaving him with little breath. He fell to his knees and regained his balance when the Brute was on him again, and it punched him in the stomach, knocking the rest of the wind out of him. Silverman had no time to recover as the Brute punched him in the face. He was knocked into the wall, and then the Brute punched again. Silverman managed to move to the right, and the fist punched nothing but the wall, leaving a large indent and a series of cracks. The Brute continued to pummel him, and he fell to his knees.

McCabe shot the Brute again, but it was on her in less than a second. It kicked her, and she smashed into a dressing table, and Silverman's Battle rifle fell off it, clattering to the ground. She was picked up by the Brute, and it threw her across the room. She hit the wall and was kicked in the stomach, then thrown across the room to the door, next to Silverman's Battle rifle, and she saw him in the hall, on the ground, with the Brute advancing on him.  
"McCabe!"

Silverman coughed, and blood splattered on the inside of his helmet, and he slipped it off, ready to face the-

The Brute kicked him in the stomach, and he was winded again. He caught his breath and managed to yell out: "McCabe!" before he was brutally yanked off his feet and slammed into the wall, held by the neck. He gasped for air, and then the Brute punched him in the cheek, letting go at the same time, and blood flowed from Silverman's mouth and onto the wall and floor, and then he was picked up by the neck again, and punched in the face.

He heard a _crack!_ emit from his face, and blood flowed from his now-broken nose. The pain began to dim as the Brute threw him to the floor, and he whispered:

"McCabe. Don't let me die…"

"James!"

He looked behind the Brute, and saw a Battle rifle flying towards him it. The Brute, curious about the sound, turned its head.

Wrong move.

The end of the Battle rifle smashed into the Brute's _eye_, and purple blood sprayed everywhere, and it roared, then faced Silverman again, angry as hell. Silverman had managed to stand up, and was quickly pinned against the wall with the shoulder pad of the Battle rifle against his shoulder. The Brute wasn't dead.

_No fucking way_!

He groaned as the world began to dim, and he saw the Brute's mouth twist into a grin. Silverman coughed, and spat blood onto the ground, using a lot of energy to do it, and then the Brute punched him savagely in the left arm, and the arm broke. Silverman didn't have the energy to roar or shout – he did, however, moved his right arm to the trigger, and then said to the Brute, weakly:

"Smile at this you ugly son of a bitch."

He pulled the trigger, and the Brute's brains splattered out the back of its head, littering the floor with them. Silverman fell to the ground, and saw McCabe's helmet on the ground, and saw the Brute's last present – a stolen grenade from a poor soul, and the grenade was armed.

And going to go off in 5 seconds.

As quickly as the amount of energy that he had left let him, Silverman grabbed McCabe's helmet and stuffed the grenade inside. Then he limped as fast as he could over to the Brute that had picked up McCabe and stood her on her feet to deliver another blow. Silverman jammed the helmet onto the Brute's head, and then stood in front of McCabe, who had her eyes shut from the pain. She opened them, the Brute roared, and the grenade exploded.

The Brute's head was engulfed in the explosion, and it stayed completely still while McCabe and Silverman were flung across the room. Shards from the visor smashed into Silverman's armour before he was lifted off his feet, and thrown into the wall on the other side of the room. They smashed straight _through_ the wall, and landed in a heap on the floor. McCabe, despite her injuries, crawled over to Silverman and asked:

"Silverman? James? Are you alright?"

Silverman saw red, from all the blood on his face, but managed to see her face, and he smiled, then everything went black.

* * *

The Venator and the remaining Acclamator, the _Everlaster_, flew down towards Earth at tremendous speeds, following the escape pods, which were following the silver cruiser that was inbound to the planet. As they cleared the atmosphere, and red fire no longer appeared on the view ports, Xan told them to extend the landing gears, and he knew that on the bottom of the ship, three long legs were protruding from the belly. The silver ship stopped above the centre of a city, and the escape pods crashed in the centre of the city. The Venator and the Acclamator, however, went to the outskirts of the city, so they could land and deploy ground troops.

McCabe felt tears about to spring from her face, but she was an ODST, and ODST's never showed emotions, let alone cried. She stood up and limped over to a window, and among the thousands of buildings on the outskirts, she saw two ships, both grey, but one much longer. She frowned, only seeing the bellies of them, and they screamed over the building.

"What the hell?"

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for the review, and I don't have anything to say!**


	5. 3 Great Armies One War

**

* * *

**

3 Great Armies.

**One War.

* * *

**

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or Halo.

The Venator and Acclamator touched down in time to see the last life pod smash into the sand on the beach. Well, '_touched down_' aren't really the words that should be used – how about '_crashing into the water at tremendous speeds and rendering thousands of sea animals lifeless_'? That's better.

The ships were instantly met with plasma fire coming from the beach, and so were the life pods, and clones scattered along the beach, digging themselves in or running towards the small building that occupied only a tiny amount of the sand. Over the other side, opposite the building, was a highway tunnel – which wasn't like the rest: enclosed and running through a protective wall – that lasted for about 20 metres and had been blown out by an explosion. The rubble scattered around it provided cover for the aliens there, and there was a small anti-gravity powered sniper tower, which had a grav lift leading up to it.

Xan saw all this from his position on the bridge of the _Hellmor_, and he turned around, walking down the ramp, hearing the message over the ship's speakers:

"_All personnel: make your way to your fighters, submersibles, or the exit ramp, prepare to abandon ship!_"

Xan stepped past all the clones, and he heard the ARC-170's and LAAT's launching.

"This is 325," he said into the comm to one of the Alpha pilots.

"Save one gunship, and make ready for 3 passengers, including me."

"_Yes, sir!_"

He finally made it to the med labs, and he saw Hawkins and Blay lying down on beds next to each other.

"You two alright?" he asked them.

"_Never been better!"_ Blay coughed.

"_Whoop-de-fucking-do explains my mood perfectly!_" Hawkins agreed, jokingly.

Xan grinned at their resilience to the bacta's effect on their body – it makes the receiver drowsy and in a lot of pain, and this is after they are knocked out.

"All right, we're under attack-"

"_As usual_…"

"-by a group of aliens that we've never encountered before. These ones use plasma, and now we're stranded on some planet that's a mix between Kamino, Geonosis, Felucia, and who knows how many others."

"_Great_," Hawkins and Blay said in unison.

"And we need to get you two out of here, as well as any other wounded. So do you think you two are ready for combat?"

"_What do you think_?"

"_Let's roll_!"

Xan was proud of them. Hawkins had been shot dead in the middle of his chest, screwing up his suit's life support systems, and playing hell on him. Blay had suffered a 'helluva' lot of pain, and he was still as fit as a Bantha, ready for anything.

They both stood up, Blay more slowly than Hawkins, and grabbed their weapons – Xan grabbed his custom sniper/blaster rifle, Hawkins grabbed his blaster rifle and Detpack's, and Blay grabbed his rocket launcher and Blaster rifle. And they all grabbed some pistols and Thermal Detonators. They took one of the teleporter's to the hangar to save time, and pain, and hopped on board the gunship waiting for them, which lifted off straight away.

They flew out of the ship and towards the beach, where they could see lasers and plasma flying back and forth. ARC-170's were strafing the alien positions with their main cannons, and managed to take down a few, but the enemy – whatever they were – was well positioned.

"Land some sniper's on the top of that highway tunnel," Xan said into the comm.

"I want those hostiles taken down!"

A chorus of 'Yes, sir's came back through the comm, and he could see some of the LAAT's making their way over to the roof of it. The LAAT, along with a few others, landed behind the building, and Xan, Hawkins and Blay leapt off to face a saluting Sergeant.

"_They got us as soon as we got out of the pods_," he said, and Xan could see a plasma wound in his side.

"_We did, however, find some form of a rocket launcher in the bottom area of this 2 level 'base'_."

"Good."

They walked up a ramp to the roof of the building, which held a number of weapons that held projectiles. He could hear the screams of the clones and aliens out on the beach, and then he saw an AT-TE drop from the back of a carrier gunship, and immediately open fire on the enemy position.

The first explosion took out a number of the aliens, and the turret on the top fired as well. The floating sniper tower was hit by 2 of the lasers, and it toppled down, landing amongst the rubble.

"Send the order to storm that area," Xan said.

"And make sure that the snipers keep up the fire; but call off the ARC-170's – land them anywhere within 100 metres of this outpost."

"_Yes, sir!_"

* * *

Axton charged into the room and let rip with a burst from his SMG, taking out a Grunt when the bullets entered its head. Ryan was right behind him, and he fired his Battle rifle at the Elite in the room, and it fired at Quanse, who was crouching in the doorway. When all 3 of them concentrated their fire towards it, the Elite fell to the floor, writhing and screaming. Axton kicked it in the head and fired a burst through its chest, and then they ran back out through the door and into the stairwell. They ran up the stairs and came to the next level, and Axton burst through the door, firing. McCabe, who was in the room turned around and brought her Battle rifle in front of her face, which caught 4 rounds, rendering it useless.

"Sorry," Axton said.

"_Silverman's down._" She said, limping into the bathroom to show them.

They followed her, and Quanse got out some biofoam.

"_I've already given him some_," McCabe said.

"Then we'll have to evac you both," Axton said, looking at both of their wounds, and keying the COM.  
"Sarge, this is Axton. McCabe and Silverman are badly wounded, and need immediate evac, over."

"_Roger that, Axton_," the Sarge said.

"_Evac is already on the way – some others got hit too – about 5 more minutes_."

"Yes, Sir!"

Axton and Ryan picked Silverman up, while Quanse helped McCabe limp out of the room and down the stairs. They came out the front door of the building, and they saw ODST's running around, setting up turrets and mines at choke points, and a Warthog drove past, with marines in all of the seats, and the turret aiming behind them at an enemy that might reveal themselves. Every now and then they could hear gunfire from the other buildings, and they knew that most of the buildings in this street were secure, or close to it. Axton, Quanse and Ryan took McCabe and Silverman to the nearest medical station, and they were placed onto stretchers. There was a roar, and a Pelican touched down on the ground, and reinforcements jumped off.

Silverman, McCabe and a number of other wounded ODST's were lifted onto the Pelican, and it rose into the air, leaving the rest of the ODST's behind.

Silverman was looking out the back of the Pelican, and soon he saw the city shrink, and he saw something in the water at the beach, near the bridge that led to New Mombassa.

"What's that?" he managed to mumble to himself before he coughed up some biofoam.

His vision darkened, and after a minute he blacked out.

* * *

Hawkins led a strike force of 10 clones into the rubble, but after sending 5 to scout out the beginning of the tunnel, he was left with 6, including himself. He stood at the edge of the rubble formation, and scanned the area with his eyes.

His eyes slashed right and fixed onto something with such a glare that it could penetrate a Venator's hull. His DC-15 snapped up and fired a single laser, and it smashed into the head of a small alien, which grunted and squealed as it toppled into the sand. One of the clones finished him off, and Hawkins rounded a rock with his Blaster rifle at the ready.

A mistake.

A blue alien, about the same size as him, stood at the ready, and it had 4 mandibles as a mouth, which twisted as it snarled at him. He roared and squeezed the trigger, getting the alien with 2 lasers, but they seemed to decapitate against some sort of shield which surrounded it.

The alien smashed Hawkins' rifle aside, and delivered an uppercut to the bottom of his helmet, sending Hawkins flying backwards. He skidded across the sand, and the clones dived for cover as the alien rounded the rock, filling the air with blue plasma that came from a blue 'claw' held in its right hand.

One clone was caught in the fire, and spun to the right, falling to the ground with his gun going off, screaming. Hawkins watched the alien approach him and raise the claw without hesitation.

_Boom!_

The single sniper shot penetrated the alien's shields, armour and head twice as it entered, exited, and smashed into the sand a centimetre from Hawkins' head.

* * *

"_You trying to kill it or me?_" Hawkins asked Xan over the comm as Xan looked around for any more stragglers.

He laughed from his position on the roof of the outer wall that protected the intact part of the highway tunnel.

"Doesn't matter," he said in reply.

"I got what I came for anyway – a chance to get a kill _and_ scare the shit out of you!"

* * *

Hawkins rinsed the last of the purple blood off his armour and approached Xan, who had Blay go with Alpha in the highway tunnel. They were standing out the front of their command post.

"_So_," Hawkins said.

"_You _weren't_ trying to hit me, eh_?"

"Who's to say I wasn-"

There conversation was cut off as Blay's voice entered the channel.

"_Xan! Their eve-. Lost som- lot's of hostiles- oming out now!_"

There was an explosion which originated from the highway tunnel, and every clone on the beach turned to look as an IFT-X tank came screaming out, followed closely by two purple hover crafts. The two hovercrafts spat out blue plasma from twin plasma cannons on the front at a rapid rate, and seated behind the large bulb at the front on each, looking over it was a _red_ alien – exactly the same as the blue ones, just a different colour.

The IFT-X took hits from the two hovercrafts, and plates either melted or fell off the tank. The clone in the turret was firing at them with the tank's particle laser, and sand around the hovercrafts was kicked up. A clone sat on the left wing of the hover-tank, and he held a rocket launcher, which then shot a blue rocket at the closest hovercraft.

The rocket swayed back and forth, then zero-ed in on the hovercraft, smashing into one of its wings. The wing was obliterated, whilst the rest of the craft was thrown off to the side. The alien was torn out of its seat and thrown into the air, along with the pieces of the hovercraft that had come loose. The second hovercraft zoomed around the wreckage, and through the smoke that was coming from the bits and pieces of the hovercraft.

The alien inside fired a continuous stream of plasma at the IFT-X, which was chased into the water, and they hit the right-hand engine. There was an explosion which caused the engine to belch out thick, black smoke, and send flames above the surface of the water. The hovercraft followed onto the water, hovering above it, delivering more plasma to the damaged engine. There was another, muffled, explosion, and flames broke through the surface of the tank's armour.

The IFT-X slowed down, and finally stopped, the front of it pitching forwards and going into the water.

That was when the screaming began.

Xan heard them before he saw them – enemy flyers.

5 of them emerged from around the corner, flying above the clones, who were scrambling to get some ARC troopers out of wherever they were.

They looked odd – a bulbous front, two wings with anti-gravity pods on the side, and the top was actually a door, and the person inside would lie down, as they found out when one blue alien was sniped out of its. The armour was all purple – what is it with them and purple?! Damn!

3 more rounded the corner, leaving them with 7 to deal with.

"Take em' down!" Xan roared, raising his Blaster rifle and firing at the closest one.

* * *

Scorp stood on the bridge of his Venator, looking over the battlefield that consisted of rubble, rubble and more rubble. It had been 10 minutes, according to the ship's time since they had dealt with the enemy ship that Xan had left them.

An enemy ship which was now an assortment of floating parts.

They had tried to track Xan, but he had not gone to _any_ galaxy in the entire _universe_.

"Sir," a clone said from behind him.

He turned to face the Lieutenant.

"Yes?" he growled – something that was becoming part of his nature.

"Sir, we have retrieved the last of the scavengers. Turns out that 'Xan' had taken everything worthwhile. Except, for _this_." He held up a purple crystal.

Or to be more precise, _half_ of a purple crystal.

Scorp took it, examined it, and then handed it back to the clone.

"Feed this into the scanner memory, under 'known space', and then search for Xan."

"But sir, what makes you think that we're going to be able to find Xan now?"

Although no one could see, Scorp smiled.

"When one is in space, but cannot be found – they are neither left nor right."

"Sir? I don't understand."

"Lieutenant when someone is not left or right, where are the only other places to look?"

The Lieutenant couldn't answer, so Scorp did it for him.

"_Back or forward_."

* * *

**A/N: OMFG! Sorry this one took so fucking long, but I had all these assignments, what with it being last week of school and all. But when school finished, I wasn't in the mood. Oh well. Here it is!**

**And soon I will be putting a redo of my 'Halo 3: Earth's Final stand', so stop by.**


	6. Bad Luck Always Comes In Twos

**Bad Luck Always Comes In Twos**

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, or Halo. Bungie/Microsoft and George Lucas do.

* * *

_About 12 chapters ago, in the prequel: The Front Lines/on board Accumulator…_

Clone Trooper number 833 stepped away from the 3 clones: 325; 310 and 211, who had formed their own little 'squad', and spoke to another clone via private comm channel:

"Monitor all comm transmissions, and make sure that they're the ones that Commander Neyo is looking for."

"_Yes, sir._" The clone said, bringing his advanced DC-17 Assassin's Sniper rifle to bear.

* * *

_Planet-side on Geonosis…_

The clone lay on the dirt, concealed by a number of rocks, on top of a cliff, overlooking the site of a command post building site. He peered through the scope of his Sniper rifle, and watched as a Republic gunship took a missile to the back. It crashed to the ground, and crumbled inward, shattering glass and leaving fires burning inside it. Clones ran towards it, and they pulled out a pilot.

The second gunship dodged a few missiles, and he heard the pilot say something, but it came through as static – a sign that the pilot used a private channel. He watched as the second gunship zoomed away, and then saw one clone run into one of the tents.

A moment later, he heard a comm message being broadcasted out to any nearby gunships:

"_Mayday, mayday! This is Corporal Xan, requesting immediate backup! We have wounded! I repeat! We have wounded that need evac, ASAP!_"

That was all he needed to hear.

He keyed the comm, and opened a private channel to his superior; 833.

"Sir," he whispered.

"This is 812, we have confirmation, I repeat, we have confirmation: they are the ones."

There was static for a moment, and then:

"_Roger that, 812, good work. Take them out._"

"Yes, sir!"

The clone loaded his Sniper rifle, and he looked through the scope once again. Did he have any thoughts of betrayal, or mutiny? Perhaps, but if he expressed them, he would be silenced.

Besides, orders were orders.

He watched as the CIS forces closed in, and saw one of the Hailfire droids explode. The crosshair was aimed at one of the clones crouching inside a bunker. Fortunately, he could make the shot, as it was a very poor bunker.

The projectile entered the clone's back and exited via his chest, travelling through his heart on the way. The clone was dead before he slumped against the stone, and the clone next to him had time to yell before he went down too. 812 knew that the second clone would live… for now, so he left him to die of the blood loss. Blood covered the stone, and the last three clones ducked down in a trench.

He had no shot.

The clones were suppressed by the remaining Spider tank, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to make the shot any time soon.

He stopped.

What was he doing?

_Killing clones…killing allies_.

"Why?" he asked himself.

He lowered the Sniper rifle.

He didn't have an answer.

* * *

833 looked through his own sniper scope, and saw 812 stand up, lowering his sniper rifle.

"He's becoming like them," he muttered.

He nodded to the pilot of the gunship that he was in, who brought the LAAT about to face the clone on the cliff.

"Open fire," 833 said.

The pilot fired the gunships main cannons, and 4 large lasers zoomed towards 812.

CT-812 heard a LAAT gunship firing its main cannons, and turned around, only to be blasted away from the edge of the cliff. His body smashed onto the ground, and dragged along it, gnawing away at his armour. His back hit a rock, and he stopped, and lay still.

"He's dead." 833 said to himself, glad that he had stopped a clone that was about to turn against him.

* * *

_Right Now..._

The 3 Pelican's roared over the highway, zooming past buildings and heading towards the centre of New Mombassa. The streets of Old Mombassa lay deserted – ever since the Covenant had started their attack, the city had been evacuated.

Or at least, most of it had.

Dead civilians lay strewn across the ground, and vehicles lay on their sides or roof, some with flames sprouting out of them.

Cpl. Silverman closest to the cockpit, and McCabe sat across from him.

"_Can't get this fucking thing on!_" Ryan said, struggling with his seatbelt.

Somebody laughed.

"_Careful_," Axton said.

"_Your gonna fall out the back of the Pelican!_"

After they had been treated, and most of their wounds had been healed, they had been immediately assigned to this mission, along with the rest of their squad.

"_Lock and load!_" The Sergeant shouted, and Silverman racked a round into the chamber of his Battle rifle.

Axton and McCabe punched fists, and Quanse patted Silverman on the back.

"_30 seconds out_" the pilot of one of the other Pelican's said.

"_Stand by to- whoa…_"

Silverman leaned forward and looked through the cockpit window to see what was going on, and a knot formed in his stomach. He yelled out, which hurt his lungs:

"Brace yourselves!"

There was an explosion as the large metal _bug_ that Silverman saw fired a long, large, green beam, which only just missed their Pelican.

3rd squad, the ODST's inside the middle Pelican, weren't so lucky.

The beam enveloped the Pelican, and it crashed to the ground, accompanied by a huge explosion.

Purple plasma bolts fired from one of the two secondary turrets on the Covenant machine, and a number of them hit the Pelican that Silverman was in.

Or, to be more precise, they hit the Pelican's left engine. Black smoke immediately poured out of the damaged engine, and it veered off to the right.

Ryan screamed as the only one of four seatbelt straps that he was holding was ripped away from his hand, and he flew out the back of the Pelican, but was jerked to a halt as Sergeant Grale's hand slapped into his.

The Sergeant pulled him back in, and as soon as Ryan's feet touched the metal, he held onto the handholds above him with a death grip. The damaged engine coughed, and then flames spat out of it, just as the Pelican passed over the top of a hotel, and then they came closer to the sand of the beach they were going to crash on.

"_Hold on!_" the pilot yelled, struggling to bring the Pelican under control.

It was no use.

The Pelican's nose hit the sand first; smashing the glass and making the nose crumple inwards. Sand flowed past the now dead pilots, and the Ryan was jerked off his feet, and one of his hands came free. The other didn't, and the elbow snapped because of the pressure. He screamed, and someone's belt snapped, causing them to fly forward and make them slam head first into the bulkhead right next to Silverman, with a sickening _crack_! The man's neck was bent at a grotesque angle, and McCabe's helmet hit the wall next to her, giving her one helluva headache. At the last second, Ryan let go of the handhold, and his leg hit the bulkhead.

But he was alive.

"Status!" Grale yelled, ripping off his now visor-less helmet to reveal a bloody gash.

"Both pilots are dead," Silverman reported, unstrapping himself and looking through the doorway that lead to what remained of the cockpit.

"Mendez is down," Axton added, pausing to strip his dead friend of his dog tags and ammo.

"Sarge!" Quanse was already standing at the back of the Pelican, looking at the wreckage that was a building, a hotel.

Grale basically read his mind, and echoed Quanse's thoughts.

"Let's get moving!" he barked.

"Quanse, you got point. Silverman, Axton, stay here with Ryan – make sure that he gets all of the necessary treatment, and then we'll let you know once that building is secure."

"Yes, sir!"

"Yes, sir!"

* * *

Blay sat on the IFT-X, and as the second hovercraft fired at him, he fired his last rocket. It zoomed towards the purple hovercraft, and then, at the last second, the hovercraft moved to one side, and the rocket flew past, detonating on the sand at the beach.

_Shit_.

The hovercraft flew towards him, and he knew that, if no one came, he would die.

* * *

Xan fired his DC-15 blaster rifle at one of the flying vehicles, and it zeroed in on him. He rolled to the right as it strafed his position with blue plasma, and stood up again as it screamed over his head. He fired at the back of it, and at the wings, and a few lucky shots landed on the left anti grav pod. The tiny white sphere disappeared, and the single-man fighter spiralled down to the sand, crashing into it.

The occupant had jumped away at the last second, and a fire had formed inside the cockpit. Xan aimed at the blue alien and squeezed the trigger. Ionized bolts smashed into the alien, and its personal shield disappeared. More bolts hit it, and it roared once, and fell to the ground, dead.

"_Xan!_" He heard Blay's voice

"_Help!_"

Xan looked over to where his HUD showed where Blay was, and saw him standing on top of the flaming IFT-X. Xan looked over to the corner where the flying enemies had come from, and saw hundreds upon hundreds of aliens come pouring around the corner.

"Into the water!" he shouted to everybody through the comm.

"Regroup at the ships! Snipers maintain positions – fire at will!"

The thousands of clones on the beach began sprinting to the water, and plasma rained down on them from every direction. Xan ran to the ship with the others, and when the water became too deep to run, he swam.

The base had been overrun, and any clones that remained on the beach were slaughtered by plasma fire. Sent the codes to the ship to open the hangar ramp, and then the thousands of clones poured into the hangar via the access ramp.

"Blay," Xan said.

"Wait there – I'll be back."

"_I don't have all day, Xan!_"

Xan ran on bard the Venator class ship, and broadcasted a message to every clone:

"Grab any IFT-X tanks you can, and I'll see you on the beach."

He gave them a dead giveaway: they were going to assault the beach. Right now.

He jumped into his own IFT-X, manning the turret, while another clone took up the driving position. Hundreds upon hundreds of tanks, including Xan's, and spray was kicked up, even though they hovered above the water.

"Take us over to the wounded tank!" Xan yelled to the pilot, who acknowledged the order by accelerating towards Blay.

On the beach, Xan watched as the few hundred aliens turned into a few thousand. He gulped, and then their tank pulled alongside Blay's dead tank. He fired a blue beam at the hovercraft that had remained in front of the dead IFT-X, and it exploded.

"Jump on!" he yelled over a private comm channel to Blay.

Blay stumbled and fell into the water, and Xan told the pilot to stay, and then jumped out, standing on the hull of his tank.

"_Xan!_" Hawkins' voice was barely audible over a wash of static.

"_Look out_!"

Xan didn't have any time to move, and the ensuing explosion threw him clear from his tank.

* * *

Hawkins looked through the scope of a DC-15 Sniper rifle, and tracked one of the screaming enemy ships. He tried to find a way to kill the pilot, and he found one – a small hole, about half a centimetre wide, and pulled the trigger.

The sniper shot zoomed through the tiny gap, and the pilot slid out the back, dead. The flying vehicle fell to the ground after it.

Hawkins reloaded and looked at the water, where he saw a clone, designated as Xan, stood on the hull of an IFT-X tank. He also saw one of the flying things bearing down on Xan, and it fired a green thing, some sort of rocket.

"Xan! Look out!" he yelled into the comm.

Too late.

* * *

He watched as the rocket connected, destroying the tank, and flinging Xan away from the flaming wreckage.

The world was eerily silent.

_Deathly_ silent.

Xan floated underwater, and he heard nothing, and saw none of his HUD's instruments. He then realised that his helmet wasn't on his head – must've been thrown clear during the… the what? Explosion? Yes, that was it…. Wasn't it?

Whatever it was, it didn't matter – he had to get to the surface, and take a breath.

He managed to surface for a quick second and gasp, during which he heard screaming. He surfaced again, and heard explosions and more screaming, followed by the whining sound of plasma. He fell under the surface again, and saw dead bodies floating above him.

He might soon join them.

He surfaced once more, and saw that _a lot_ of IFT-X tanks had made their way to shore, and were accompanying the many troops that didn't have a vehicle. He heard screaming and inhuman roars all along the beach, and he found a helmet –_ his_ helmet – floating in the water next to him.

He picked it up and placed it on his head, hearing frantic pleas for help, and orders streaming out to and from almost every clone trooper on the beach.

Blay… he had to find Blay and then order in the ARC's, and then, maybe, they would take the beach.

What was he thinking? They _will_ take the beach.

No matter what the cost.

* * *

**A/N: I am sorry if this chapter was too long for everybody that reads it! And if i didn't cover too much!**

**Please Read and Review on your way out.**


	7. The Battle For The Beach Has Begun

**The Battle For The Beach Has Begun**

Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, so please don't sue me!

* * *

Axton sat next to Ryan, who was lying down on the floor of the Pelican, and he talked to him.

"Ryan, there's nothing I can do about your arm – I'm sorry – but your leg is dislocated."

"That explains a lot," Ryan said, grinning, mischievously.

"No, no, it was dislocated when you hit the wall."

"Oh, okay, it was just that, umm…"

"S-something you want to talk about, or-?"

"No, nah I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yep."

"Okay…" Axton said, confused about what Ryan had said.

"Here goes…1, 2-"

_Crraacckk!_

Silverman, standing at the back of the Pelican, winced at the sound of his comrade in pain. He heard Ryan shout in surprise, and pain, as Axton relocated it on the number '2' instead of '3'. He checked his weapons – a Battle rifle, 2 frag grenades, a Magnum and a knife.

"Hey Silverman!"

He turned around to see Axton helping Ryan onto a seat.

"Do that trick with the knife, you know, how you twirl and catch and all that?"

Silverman grinned.

"For you or the patient?"

"Uhhh… No comment."

He laughed, giving in, and slung his Battle rifle.

"Alright, alright."

He unsheathed his knife, and balanced it on one finger, making sure that only the bottom of the handle connected with his finger.

Suddenly, he moved his finger away so fast, that there was a delay in the fall of the knife, and then he moved his left hand out to grab it by the blade. He caught it, and twirled it, spinning it around and throwing it up and catching it some more. He moved his left arm behind his back, and threw it up and over his head. He bent down and stuck his right hand through his legs and caught it just before it hit the ground.

He threw it up again, almost a soon as he caught it, and stood up again. He raised both arms, and he caught it between his hands, and then tossed it up, but it didn't spin at all, and it came down vertically, with the tip of the blade pointing straight down. He raised his right arm only, and outstretched his index finger, leaving it still in the air. The knife was about to rip straight through his finger, when he moved his finger down, and the blade was only just touching his glove. He moved his arm down at the same speed of the knife, decelerating at the same time, and then moved his arm sideways, bringing it up at the same time, and then lashed out with the tips of his left hand's fingers.

They tipped the blade, and it began to spin around on the tip of Silverman's finger. Soon it stopped spinning, but remained stationary on his finger. He threw it, spinning, into the air one last time, and took half a step forwards, letting it fall perfectly into its sheath on the right side of his belt.

Axton clapped 3 times.

"Well done," he said sarcastically.

"Looks like you owe me another 5 bucks." Silverman said.

"Just 'till you drop it, mate." Axton said. "Do you take credit card?"

Laughter echoed in the pelican, although its back door was open, and then there was a _thump_ in the ground, which left Silverman lying on the floor.

"What the hell was that?" Ryan asked, suddenly alert, cradling his bad arm.

Silverman stood up, and with Axton, walked over to the back of the Pelican, unslinging his Battle rifle. Axton leaned around the side, and saw smoke rising in large columns over the other side of the beach, but didn't have a view of the beach itself.

"Something's going on," he said as Silverman joined him.

Silverman nodded in agreement.

They heard a whining sound, which appeared out of nowhere, and then saw a Ghost, then another, to go with it.

"Shit," Silverman swore whilst running back into the Pelican.

"What is it?" Ryan asked.

"Two Ghosts, 4 Covenant bastards.

"Their holding more than one now?"

"One is riding on the front on each."

"Fuck…"

Silverman grabbed Axton's SMG and tossed it to him, and Axton caught it in the air, pulling out the magazine and checking the number of rounds it had. Satisfied, he pushed it back in, and then held it at the ready position.

Silverman approached one of the 2 'Emergency' cabinets on the wall and opened it, finding a rocket launcher, with a single rocket. He pulled it out and loaded the rocket into it.

He ran over to the back of the Pelican and leaned out, looking through the scope and targeting one of the Ghosts, then holding down the trigger.

"God I hope this is one of the new ones," he whispered to himself, letting go of the trigger.

The rocket zoomed straight – past the moving Ghost, which then turned to look at him.

"Shit!" he said "Down, now!"

He dove back as plasma bombarded the back of the Pelican. He landed hard on the metal plating, and saw Axton take a hit to the arm, whilst Ryan shrank back towards the front of the Pelican.

Axton screamed and dropped his SMG, falling to the ground and clawing at the burn mark, which was eating away at his skin. It spread from his forearm to his upper arm in a matter of seconds, and then stopped, leaving his entire left arm black, charred and smoking. He lay still, but Silverman could hear him breathing – he was alive, but not in any state to fight.

Suddenly, he heard gunfire, followed by an explosion, and then inhuman screaming, quickly followed by another explosion. He recognised the gun firing as the LAAG on the back of a Warthog, and to confirm that he heard a marine cheering.

"Come out, Silverman!" he heard Quanse's voice, and he stood up, leaning around the corner and seeing a Warthog come to a stop just outside the Pelican, with, what his helmet's systems identified as Quanse on the turret, the Sarge in the side seat next to… the Master Chief.

He had heard stories about him – the only person – save Sergeant Major Avery Johnson – to survive the battle of Reach _and_ the battle on the first Halo, completely classified, of course – Sergeant Johnson, or _Uncle Ave_ to Silverman, had told him the whole thing.

He noticed that the Spartan was standing in front of him, a full foot taller than Silverman, waiting for the answer to a question Silverman had not heard.

"Report, soldier." He said blankly.

Silverman snapped into motion.

"Yes, sir – we have to wounded, one critically. Suggest immediate Pelican medivac."

The Master Chief nodded, approving of Silverman's quick, no BS, assessment of the situation. For about 20 seconds, the Master Chief didn't move a muscle, and Silverman assumed he was communicating with a pilot, or somebody with a high rank.

Finally, he stepped back over to the Warthog, and hopped back into the driver's seat, starting up the engine.

"Cpl. Quanse, I want you to stay with these 2 wounded here, and when the evac arrives, rendezvous with us at the bridge with any available soldiers or ordnance."

"Roger that, sir."

Silverman watched as Quanse leapt off the back of the Warthog and ran inside, seeing to Axton's wound.

"Hop on." The Master Chief said blankly to Silverman.

Silverman willingly obliged by climbing onto the back of the Warthog and holding onto both handles of the LAAG.

He grinned, but nobody could see it, of course.

"Let's roll."

* * *

An explosion shook the ground underneath Xan's feet, but he regained his posture and resumed firing at a half-dead alien which then dropped, smouldering. Clones all along the beach ran forwards to any cover possible – destroyed tanks, enemy 'bunkers', or just craters made by explosions.

Xan ran with a group of 4 other clones along the front of the beach, and water splashed at his feet.

"Down!" he shouted, throwing himself to the ground to have an enemy aircraft fire plasma at him and the squad, but only wound one clone, who screamed whilst falling to the ground. A green rocket zoomed over their heads, and they jumped up again, spreading out to avoid a plasma grenade tossed at them.

The only sound on the beach was the sound of plasma weapons and clones' weapons firing, and explosions. Xan reloaded, diving to the left and landing hard in the sand to dodge a burst from one of the tall blue aliens. He stuffed the clip in and rolled to face the alien, squeezing the trigger and letting it have it, not giving it a chance to get another shot off.

He stood up again and resumed running along the beach, taking 5 steps back to pick up Blay, whom he had found a few minutes earlier. He dragged Blay along for a few metres before dropping him to take out a number of the smaller aliens.

_Boom!_

There was an explosion which engulfed his squad, only leaving numerous body parts to fly away from the scene, accompanied by blood. He held his stomach, but then picked up Blay and dragged him some more, finally letting him go and lying down inside the hole that was created by the explosion that consumed his squad.

"Hawkins!" he shouted through the comm.

"_Yeah?!_"

"I need you to take out those damn rocket emplacements using any means necessary!"

"_Roger that, Xan! Consider it done!_"

* * *

Hawkins lay on top of the highway tunnel's support, where he was when the battle had started, and acknowledged Xan's message.

"Roger that, Xan!" he shouted, ducking back to dodge some plasma fired from a turret that had spotted him.

"Consider it done!"

A chunk of concrete just in front of him was blown away, and the remains of it tumbled down to the sand below.

"Shit!" he clumsily crawled backwards to avoid more plasma, and then moved forwards again, taking aim quickly, pulling the trigger in time to take out the small creature at the turret and dodge some of its last plasma bolts. He moved forwards and leaned over the edge, looking through the scope of his DC-15 Sniper rifle to see the building that the aliens had taken. He saw some strange looking devices, and his suspicions were confirmed when he saw one fire a green rocket and obliterate some clones.

"Xan, this is Hawkins, position confirmed – stand by."

"_Roger that – just take them out, quick!_"

He took aim and fired the sniper rifle at the alien on one, and it went down with a shot to the head. He quickly took aim at the second, but his aim was 4 millimetres off target, due to the fact that he hadn't stopped to aim properly, and the projectile entered the alien's strange gas mask, which provided methane for it, which, in turn, lit up instantly, and gouts of flame spurted outwards from it.

The flame penetrated the breakable glass that held the explosive liquid which was then transformed into a hard shell, with the liquid inside, and it lit up instantly. The explosion tore a chunk out of the building, and it spread to the next one in line, which exploded as well, and the other 3 met the same fate.

"Xan – the building is clear of the rockets – go, go, go!"

* * *

Blay awoke.

His eyes took in the situation in an instant.

Beach, battle, Xan running towards him, Blay's own broken leg.

Ouch.

Blay yelped in pain as Xan dragged him across the sand, unaware of the fact that Blay was awake. Blay chinned the speaker controls, still feeling immense pain.

"Xan!" he shouted.

Xan turned around and kneeled down as plasma zoomed over his head and, without hesitation, put Blay's arm over his shoulder and helped him hop across the ground to the lip of the crater in the sand.

"_Covering fire!_" Xan yelled over every comm channel.

All of the clones on the beach rose as one, and all fired a devastating wall of blue at the aliens, and they were forced to take cover. The clones ran up the beach, continuing the firing, and Xan and Blay soon ended up inside the building.

"_Stay here_," Blay heard Xan say to him as he lay him against the wall.

_Where else am I gonna go?_ Blay thought to himself.

* * *

Xan advanced up a ramp on the outside of the building, and a squad of 7 little alien bipeds were guarding it, and they screamed as he took them down with precise shots.

He made it to the top, but backed down as plasma streaked past his helmet. He leaned back up and managed to fire off a few shots, but then ducked again as an explosion showered him with rubble. He switched clips, seeing that he only had 2 left, and leapt up again, taking down the blue alien that had him pinned.

He pulled out a Thermal detonator, rolled it to the feet of another group of aliens, and then ducked back, feeling the explosion shake the building as blood flowed past him. Xan jumped out and stepped onto the roof, taking down 2 survivors and being joined by a fire team. They took down 3 more, and the area was secure.

He looked back across the beach; saw that there were hundreds more aliens, and that the clones were pushing them towards the highway tunnel.

"Bring in the ARC-170s for a strafing run," he said to the clone next to him, who saluted in response.

"That should mop up the rest of them."

The trooper nodded, spoke for a few minutes over a private channel, and then spoke to Xan.

"Sir – they are on their way, and should be here in about 20 minutes."

"Roger that, trooper – good work. What's your number?"

The clone hesitated for a second, and then answered.

"812," he said. "Clone trooper number 812."

"812, huh? 325 – You call me Xan."

"Xan…" the clone trooper said slowly, smiling under his helmet.

"Excellent."

* * *

Scorp was awoken abruptly.

"_Sir,_" the voice of one of his senior officers came through his personal quarter's channel.

"This had better be good."

"Yes, sir – 2 things. First, we found him. We found Xan."

Scorp sat up straight.

"Where?!" he asked immediately.

"In another time, sir. The crystal we processed apparently has the ability to make hyperspace faster. Combine that with the power and speed of the new hyperdrives, and you have yourself a time portal."

"Do you have the co-ordinates?"

"Yes, sir – the second thing – a message was broadcasted to us by a clone – someone who obviously new what he was doing, and who he was looking for: us."

A message was played over the comm channel.

"_This is… -ound Xan, attempt-…going to follow orders. Orders that were given to me by your superiors, Scorp._"

Scorp's eyes widened as co-ordinates were relayed – a planet called 'Earth' was Xan's location.

"_I am going to kill Xan, and regain my position in the Republic fleet. CT-812, out_."

* * *

**A/N: I am so sorry that took a while, but I was getting back into the habit of going to school, which is really annoying.**

**I hope you enjoyed it, and could you please leave a review on your way out.**


	8. Revenge is a Dish Thats Best Served Cold

**Revenge Is A Dish That's Best Served Cold**

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or Halo.

* * *

The Venator _Lancier_ was in hyperspace for a few seconds only, and then it exited, coming out in the middle of a huge battle in space between smooth, silver ships that glinted in the light of the sun, and large metallic ships and stations. The metallic ships and space stations fired large projectiles and torpedoes at the silver ships. The silver ships returned with blue, glinting torpedoes and long beams of purple plasma, which could cut straight through the metallic ships.

Scorp had stumbled into an all-out war between 2 sides that he had never met.

The 2 accompanying Acclamator's exited hyperspace on either side of the _Lancier_ – a little too close for Scorp's liking.

"Send the message to the Acclamator's to break formation and form a defensive perimeter around us - circling - and keeping the weapons ready."

"Aye, Scorp."

Single fighters from both 'sides' of the battle fired at each other, zooming around debris and other, larger, ships to get a clear shot at one another. One fighter, who Scorp assumed was on the 'alien' side, fired purple bolts of plasma at a black ship, which took the bolts to the body, and exploded seconds later. The oval shaped purple ship manoeuvred around the debris and began firing at another target.

"Start scanning to see where Xan is." Scorp growled. "I don't want that clone, 812, beating us to Xan."

"Yes, sir."

"And give the order to paint the armour of every single soldier on these 3 ships – we don't want to go down there and have a serious case of friendly fire. Blue should do, I think. Blue stripes."

"Roger that, Captain."

* * *

On the next section of the beach, Silverman put a deafening burst from the LAAG into a group of Grunt's, and they squealed; toppling over each other while blue blood squirted out of holes created in various parts of their bodies.

The Master Chief drifted the Warthog around the small building in the sand, and Silverman squeezed the triggers, aiming at an Elite that was running for one of the purple Covenant boxes. It made it there, and Silverman held his aim, putting hundreds of bullets into the front of the box. He stopped, knowing that the Elite was dead – or close to it – and brought the LAAG around to face another Elite. The Elite was stupid enough to get in front of the speeding Warthog, and it was crushed underneath the tyres.

Sarge, in the side seat, fired his Battle rifle at the Covenant who were attempting to regroup while Silverman took a moment to let his teeth stop shaking. The Warthog ramped up over the top of a concrete sewerage wall, and hit the sand. The Warthog stopped.

"What the hell?" Silverman heard Sarge mutter.

* * *

An explosion rocked the ground beneath Xan's feet. Blaster fire was being directed at the hundreds of aliens in, and around, the tunnel entrance, and Xan spoke to a pilot over the comm.

"We need a team of 7 LAAT's at the beach, ready to go with full missiles and fuel – we're going to go into the centre of the city to secure the clones that landed there in their escape pods."

"_Roger that, Captain, we'll have them ready in about 5 minutes._"

He switched to a private channel, "Hawkins, I need you to find a way down from there and get over here."

"_Ok, Xan. How much time have I got?_"

"5 minutes."

"_I knew you didn't like me…_"

Xan turned to the clone behind him – 812.

"How many clones are in the centre of the city?" Xan asked him.

"Sir, we are receiving constant updates from them, and they say that their original numbers were 724, but now they're down to about 680. It's very hard to navigate in the small streets with that amount of soldiers, so they've holed up, but about 100 of them are MIA – they weren't found after the drop."

"_Sir! New contact – unidentified technical at 4 0'clock!_"

Xan turned and looked towards the only other entrance to the beach – behind him, next to the large wall that separated 2 sand fronts. A four-wheeled primitive looking vehicle had come to a stop just next to the water, behind the clones' new CP. It had 3 people in it: one green 'giant' driving, and a passenger in black armour, and a gunner, standing up on the back in black armour.

"_Who are they?_" somebody asked over all the channels.

"Try and make contact with it," Xan said. "See what they're intentions are."

"_Roger that, sir_."

The ARC-170's flew over the top of the building, strafing the rocks with laser fire. One ship fired its plasma torpedoes: one hit the hovering sniper 'tower', and the other demolished a group of aliens hiding in the rubble. Most of the sniper tower was obliterated, and the remains were knocked away from the anti-grav beam that was suspending it in the air. It hit the ground, the remains of it shattered, and a few unfortunate aliens were killed by sharp – and fast – pieces of jagged 'metal'.

"I need that vehicle raised on the comm now!" he yelled.

"_Sir, we have them! Patching you through… now!_"

Xan spoke immediately into the comm channel.

"This is Captain 325 of the Republic, stationed on board the _Helmor_, requesting names, rank and verification of FOF status with our army in 20 seconds, or we will wipe you from the face of this planet.

10 seconds passed without anything except the screaming of aliens and clones coming from the pile of debris. Xan said over a different channel,

"Tell 2 ARC's that we have a new target for them - these new guys aren't going to answer. Leave the rest on clean-up duty."

"_Yes, sir_."

The clones had managed to force seats out of rubble, and were giving orders over the comm. 2 ARC's broke away from the rest of the pack, ready to kill.

* * *

Silverman looked in awe as soldiers clad entirely in white armour battling the Covenant outside the hole – amongst a pile of rubble – in the highway tunnel. Ships flew over the rubble, firing green lasers at the Covenant taking cover inside the rubble.

Suddenly, 2 of the ships broke off, and started heading towards the Warthog.

"Son of a bitch," the Sarge said softly, then he shouted, "Move it, Chief – _move_!"

The Chief slammed his foot down on the pedal, and the wheels kicked up sand, before catching and sending the Warthog screeching down the beach.

Silverman turned around and fired at the building with white soldiers on it, but missed all of them, only just missing one of the ones standing. He took aim at the 2 ships that were now trailing the Warthog.

The bullets from the LAAG swept towards the 2 ships, being spread out over a large space as the gun recoiled in different directions. They fired green lasers, and the lasers flew towards the Warthog at a tremendous speed. As if sensing they were going to die, the Master Chief sound the Warthog around 180 degrees, keeping his foot on the gas, and the Warthog didn't even slow. The lasers impacted on the sand behind them, kicking up a lot of it, leaving Silverman's ears ringing – the sound of impact was near deafening at that close range.

He turned and squeezed the trigger again, when he saw 4 blue balls flying towards them; fired from the ships.

They were most likely missiles of some sort.

"Get down!" he screamed, firing wildly at them in an attempt to stop them.

It didn't work, and Silverman jumped – abandoning the Warthog.

The torpedoes hit the ground on the right of the Warthog – it would have killed Silverman – and the Sarge and the Master Chief were thrown from it. The Master Chief hit the ground running towards the highway tunnel, but the Sarge hit the ground and then didn't move.

Silverman hit the ground, rolling, and then he stopped, facing the sky, in time to see the flaming chassis of the Warthog fly towards him.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry if this chapter was too short, but I think I will make the rest of the chapters as short as that one. I need a vote: should I make the chapters the same length, longer or shorter than this one?**

**Thanks for reading this chapter, wait for the next one, and please tell me in the reviews: longer, shorter or the same.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sometimes Things Go From Very Bad, To Much Worse**

Disclaimer/Author's note: Sorry this has taken ages to write – I have no excuse – but I hope people are still reading. And please leave a review. Don't worry; I have a good ending planned.

* * *

Silverman watched in horror as the Warthog moved in a nightmarish slow-motion.

It was 5 metres above him, then 3, then 2. He shouted in fear, and rolled to the side, hoping it would do something to stop the black, flaming 'ball' of metal.

But it was no use.

* * *

Xan watched, and heard, the Warthog crash onto the sand. It hit, flew into the air and flipped once, crashed onto the sand once more and lay still, the flames covering it getting smaller.

After bullets had just missed him, he had been tackled by 812, and he was grateful as bullets passed overhead. 812 was still on top of him, and their visors were touching, but Xan was lucky they were so darkly tinted – otherwise 812 and the others would have seen his panicked expression. 812 hopped off him, and Xan was stand up when the firing from the rocks near the tunnel ceased, and he knew that the battle was over. For now.

"Thank you, Sergeant."

812 looked at Xan, confused. As far as he knew there was no-one in Xan's presence was as low as a Sergeant – except for Xan himself, Hawkins and Blay, of course – because he was usually surrounded by the bridge crew, who held the rank of 1st Lieutenant or something close to that. The only time when he was with Sergeants, Corporals, etc. was when he was with a squad.

"Sir?"

"You heard me, _Sergeant_ 812. Now I want that new Bravo team, led by you, to check out the damage and see if there are any survivors."

812 was glad. He had been promoted 2 ranks, skipping Corporal and going straight to Sergeant! He went down the outside ramp and spoke to the comm officers via the main channel.

"This is Sergeant 812, requesting new team comm channel for _Bravo_ be up-linked with the Captain and comm officers, over." He said over the radio to a comm officer once he had come to the sand.

"_Roger that, Sergeant, comm up-link confirmed and ready, out_."

He opened the channel to Bravo – everything was going according to his plan, but it was happening a lot faster than he anticipated.

"Bravo team," he said over the channel, stepping around the corner to the back of the building where they had racks of weapons.

He paused as 2 IFT-X tanks hovered past, almost deafening him with the noise of their engines.

"This is Sergeant 812, your new CO – rendezvous with me at the CP for new orders.

He heard various answers of, "_Yes, sir._" And he grinned – he was a squad leader.

Then again, he was also sad, he thought as his grin disappeared. He sighed inside his helmet softly so no one could hear him over the open channel.

He was still going to kill Xan.

* * *

Downstairs, Blay injected his leg with bacta, and groaned as he felt the pain of the bones in his leg realigning. He squeezed his eyes shut so he wouldn't have to witness the grotesque scene of his leg bones moving 90 degrees to the right, and then his bones cracked as they locked into place once more.

It would take some times for the pain to stop, but as far as he was concerned he was good to go. He stood up. _Ouch_. Limped to the ladder. _Ouch._ Slowly climbed up.

_Ouch._ Step. _Ouch_. Step. He would soon get used to it.

He arrived up on the roof to see Xan briefing Hawkins and at least 36 other clones on their latest mission.

Handicapped or not, Blay was going to go with them.

He joined the group that took up the space on the roof and saw as Hawkins greeted him by holding up one finger.

Blay switched to comm channel 'one' and heard Xan briefing them.

"_We're going into the centre of the city specifically to bring out 700 of our clones._"

Xan cut straight to the point and paused as a holographic map of the city was beamed onto everyone's visor.

"_Their last report indicated that they were in – or around – this area_," a circle with a radius of about 20 km appeared near the city centre.

"_This map is a rough layout based on aerial photos taken on the way down, and that is where most of the life-pod signatures are transmitting from_."

Blay new that when Xan said 'most of', he wasn't telling everyone that about 120 soldiers had landed outside the zone and were now MIA or KIA.

"_As I said, this map isn't perfect, and enemy strength is unknown…we'll be landing in hazardous territory, most likely vastly outnumbered. Are you all with me?_"

Every single clone answered, "_Yes, sir!_"

Blay turned as he saw 7 LAAT's land on the sand, and beyond, he saw allied tanks hover into the highway tunnel – under Xan's orders – to scout out the area beyond.

* * *

812 and the other 3 clones in his squad advanced cautiously towards the wreckage of the vehicle, after passing a black-clad corpse. They had confirmed that he was dead, and now 2 of the clones lifted up the wreckage to check for the green giant while 812 and the last clone secured the second black-armoured corpse.

But this one was alive.

They removed his helmet and 812 gasped as he saw the human's scar.

_It was exactly the same as Xan's!_

The human groaned, but was unconscious.

"_Sergeant 812, report._" Xan's voice came over the comm.

812 gulped.

"Uh, we have one dead, one alive, but the green soldier is gone."

"_Very good, well done. Take him to the CP until he comes to for questioning, and fill me in_."

_Uh oh_.

812 couldn't allow for this – Scorp would be here soon, and he would get all the glory for the kill. He could not allow that.

"No! I mean- sir, we'll meet you on the ship with the prisoner."

There was silence on the comm.

"_Very well, we'll see you on the ship, Xan out_."

* * *

Xan, Blay and Hawkins stood on board the lead LAAT, the engines were humming loudly, and they were ready to take off, all they were waiting for was Bravo squad with the prisoner.

"_Why are you bringing him?_" Hawkins asked Xan over their private channel.

"Because I believe that he knows the streets better than our map designers, and he can probably lead us through, and maybe even get us out of a sticky situation by telling us alternate routes."

"_But we have no idea who – or what – he is!_" Blay said, agreeing with Hawkins.

Their conversation was cut short as the prisoner was thrown on board, and he landed at their feet. The unknown soldier was clad entirely in black, but his helmet had been taken off. Xan gasped.

The soldier's leg had been crushed, most likely from the vehicle that had tumbled over the top of him, sections of his 'armour' had been burned away, and his skin had been burned and was black and charred, not too bad, but enough so that it would hurt a lot when he came to. The soldier was human. But Xan wasn't looking at the injuries.

He was looking at the soldier's face.

* * *

Silverman was drowsy, and he groggily awoke from his state of unconsciousness, and good only see blurred images. He coughed, and then felt pain in his right arm and leg, and gasped, his eyes flying fully open he sat up and shouted, gritting his teeth and willing it to go away. When he was sure that the pain had died down a little, he squeezed his eyes shut and slowly opened them, making an effort to breathe slowly, and then he looked up.

He was on some sort of transport ship, one of far different design to human or Covenant, and he realised that he had company; a crowd of the white soldiers were standing around him, all of them unmoving, and his eyes narrowed as one crouched before him.

_They're like clones._

All of the soldiers looked exactly the same

He remembered that they tried to kill him, Sarge and the Chief, so he felt for his weapons – gone.

_Damn it!_

Where were they? Had they gotten away? Or were they prisoners too? Or worse, were they dead? He had no way of telling.

_Shit._

He lashed out with his good leg – in anger – in a feeble attempt to kick the crouching soldier. It grabbed Silverman's leg and held it there with one hand, then pulled out a weapon – which was what Silverman presumed to be a pistol, as that is what it looked like – and levelled it with the bridge of Silverman's nose.

"I will say this once more, and only once." The voice was projected from speakers of some sort and sounded human; Silverman knew it had come from the white soldier with the pistol.

He continued, shouting what they had heard on the Warthog radio however long ago.

"I am Captain 325 of the Republic, stationed aboard the _Helmor_, and I want your name, rank and verification status of our army in _10_ seconds or _I will pull this trigger, do you understand me?!_"

The soldier sounded pissed and nervous, but he didn't know what about. But he knew he didn't intend to find out in Hell.

"My name is Corporal James Silverman, with the United Nations Space Corps., and I have _no fucking idea_ who you are."

The soldier with the pistol paused, thinking for a moment.

"Fine, Silverman. I think you'll find that we have a lot in common."

Silverman's temper flared.

"You tried to kill two of my CO's, and you barge into the middle of a war when our race is near extinction, and you say we have something in common?!?! For all I know you're a fucking alien!"

The clone then dropped the pistol, popped a seal on the helmet and ripped it off, and Silverman's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

The soldier _was_ human, and he looked like the battle-hardened face of one of the elite ODST's. But that's not what Silverman was focusing on.

There was a scar on the soldier's face that was

* * *

**A/N: Done! Finally! Sorry for that, for anybody who was waiting, but I am now back into the habit of writing! And hopefully I'll get them done twice as fast, as soon as I'm finished the next chapter of the other one I'm working on.**

**Please leave a review!**


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